Daybreak
by Sachiyo
Summary: When Mio is asked to help Ritsu pick out a gift for her cousin, of course she says yes. But when the event is taking a twist, Ritsu has to save her best friend after causing such a ruckus. Just how exactly will Mio take all this? Is she finally getting enough of the drummers antics, or wil she develop stronger feelings for her she had never dared thinking of?
1. Chapter 1

It's late, I just finished chapter one, and I want to go to bed. I'll edit some AU notes later… For now, just enjoy chapter one of my first ever K-On fic!

* * *

_No one's afraid of heights. They're afraid of falling._

While the teacher continued his lecture, he did not pay much attention to his students. In fact, he did not pay any attention at all. It was almost like he was in some sort of trance due to his own speaking, so the lack of concentration from the students in the classroom went unnoticed. Heck, the man even seemed to be in a different atmosphere, as he didn't see the paper airplanes fly by or the, perhaps spastic, girl who was drumming with two pens furiously.

This, however, didn't go unnoticed by a certain raven haired girl, who couldn't and wouldn't take her eyes of said drummer.

Mio was a lucky girl for being placed several seats behind her best friend. Not only could she keep an eye on Ritsu this way, considering she would occasionally fall asleep in the middle of class, but she would also be able to glance at the brunette from time to time.

They had been best friends for god knows how long, so the first thing that always came to Mio's mind was to look out for Ritsu as good as possible in class, considering the drummer did the same for her outside class. Things like protecting her from bad guys on the street.

Back when they were still in Elementary, Mio would often be the target of bullies. Not because she was nerdy or anything, she didn't wear anything out of the ordinary, but they knew she was too shy to say anything about it. It made her the perfect target. And who would be there, running over to her, fighting off the bullies, and comforting her?

Ritsu had even claimed Mio was a princess, and she was the knight. Always looking out for her and be there for her when she needed her knight the most. Mio could only blush in horror when Ritsu had first claimed this, and she even does now, but she couldn't deny that it was rather… Sweet of her childhood friend.

_'That idiot.'_

"Mio!"

The raven haired girl looked up in surprise, and grey met amber. Ritsu stood right before Mio's desk, her hands resting on the dark brown object, while eagerly looking over to her friend.

"Wh-What?" Mio simply replied to the sudden outburst, although she was used to Ritsu's usual antics already.

"Don't 'what' me, you remember, don't you? You're supposed to help me pick out a present for my girly cousin," Ritsu stated matter-of-factly.

_'Oh, that's right,'_ Mio thought, after remembering the scene of this morning. As usual, they had meet up on their way to school, and the drummer had practically begged her to help her out, saying she had no idea what to buy for the girl's birthday. Knowing that the brunette wasn't experienced in buying a nice gift, specifically for other girls, she had decided to tag along, all the while pitying Ritsu's cousin if she hadn't.

Mio simply nodded, packed her bag, and stood up from her desk. "The others know we're not coming to practice today, right?" she asked suspiciously. She knew better than any other that the drummer was rather… Forgetful. Especially when it came to filling in forms.

"Yeah, I told Yui and said she had to tell the others," Ritsu said, all the while shrugging. This, however, did not get Mio to ease, considering the other brunette wasn't that different. Yui was the type of girl that would forget one thing when she managed to learn another, so it wouldn't surprise Mio if the news would never get to Azusa and Mugi.

"Can we go now?" Ritsu spoke up, waking Mio from her thoughts. The raven haired girl waved the other to turn around and walk, so she could follow after. The brunette did as she was told and walked towards the door of the classroom, with Mio right on her tail.

* * *

The first to ever make it to the clubroom was Yui. The brunette had sprinted towards the stairs, wanting to be the first to arrive. In all honesty, she just couldn't wait for her afternoon snack and was rather thirsty, so didn't want to waste any time on getting to the best part of her day. Little did she know that there wouldn't be any of those two if she managed to beat Mugi to it.

However, she did learn so when she opened the door and saw no one there.

Yui frowned sadly and made her way to the four desks at the end of the room, slumping down into her usual seat, and placing her head tiredly onto the table. She sighed, and closed her eyes, her thoughts slowly drifting off to the usual treats she would normally be eating at this time of the day. She couldn't help but wonder what her dear Mugi-chan had brought to school today, but wonder was all she could do right now.

"Oh."

The brunette didn't even bother to look up by hearing this, her mind slowly registering what was being said and by who. By the time she recognized the voice, her eyes lit up and she sat up straight in her chair, in order to look at the newcomer.

It was her petite kouhai, as well as the rhythm guitarist of the little school band they formed. It was also her favorite person out of the entire group, managing to overpower the blonde keyboardist who always brought Yui these delicious snacks.

"I didn't think someone else would be here already," the girl continued speaking, while she placed her beloved guitar somewhere aside.

Yui immediately jumped from her seat and lunged at the somewhat smaller girl, who almost panicked and tried to jump away. It was futile. "Azunyan!" Yui yelled, in a somewhat fangirl kind of way. The girl in question got trapped in a bear hug and tried to escape, but once again, it was futile.

"My my, you two are here early," a soft voice spoke up from behind them. The two girls looked up and met Tsumugi's blue eyes, whom sparkled upon seeing their interaction. Azusa was the only one who noticed this, though.

"Mugi-chan!" Yui piped up again, but refused to let go of her little kouhai.

The blonde greeted the two other occupants of the room and made her way towards her tea set, where she started on her afternoon activity like she normally would. Azusa managed to free herself from Yui's bear hug, and went to her seat, making sure to keep her clumsy senpai in her vision.

Although she would state otherwise, she actually liked the hugs, but not when they came out of nowhere. She wanted to at least mentally prepare for them. Sadly, that was not possible when in the same room as Hirasawa Yui, master in sneaking up behind her and surprise hugging her. Or trying to kiss her, for that matter…

"Ritsu-senpai and Mio-senpai aren't here yet?" Azusa asked both of the girls, knowing they were in the same class as said people. Mugi simply shook her head while pouring tea into the cups. Yui's expression suddenly changed, as if she was trying to remember something, but was failing to do so.

While a comforting silence settled down into the room, Mugi handed each girl their respective cups and sipped on her own cup of tea, all the while smiling gently. Azusa, too, wanted to drink her tea, bringing to cup to her mouth and almost being able to sip on it, until Yui suddenly gasped. This had caught the kitty-like girl off guard, making her spill her tea onto the desk a little. Alarmed, the blonde immediately stood up and went to get something to dry it off.

"Yui-senpai!" Azusa screamed accusingly. The brunette looked at her apologetically, and Azusa found herself not being able to resist that look on her senpai's face. She looked like a hurt little puppy that way, and she hated it when Yui made that face. It left her in a vulnerable state as well.

Yui eventually giggled it off, while rubbing the back of her head apologetically. "Hehe, sorry Azunyan. Did I scare my little kitty?" She muttered in between, but switched her attention before her kouhai was able to respond. "Anyway! Mio-chan and Ricchan won't come today! Ricchan told me. I forgot why though…"

Azusa facepalmed. Of course, that was too much to ask of Yui.

"I guess we won't be able to practice today either, then…"

* * *

"I don't think we'll be able to buy your cousin a present in time," Mio sighed in frustration. For the past two hours, they'd gone to various shops and looked at various items, but Ritsu disapproved of everything Mio showed to her. Of course, the drummer was only speaking for herself, instead of her cousin.

"Well, it's not my fault stores these days sell such crap," the drummer muttered in response.

Mio huffed. "Maybe you shouldn't be that picky. The crap they sell is what people want nowadays."

"I'm not picky!" Ritsu exclaimed, stopping dead in her tracks. Mio also stopped walking and turned to her best friend. "Oh please, Ritsu. You've been turning down ieverything/i I showed you," she said, obviously annoyed.

"That's because everything looks so… Ugh, I dunno!"

"Well, I'm going home! I still have some studying to do, unlike certain other people," the bassist said. She turned away from the drummer, and wanted to walk away, but strong and steady hands wrapped around her wrist.

"Mio wait!" Ritsu yelled, making sure the raven haired girl wasn't able to leave just yet. "Let's… Let's check out that store! It's the last one, I promise!" The brunette pointed at a large building down the street while saying so.

Mio examined the building, calculating her chances in succeeding here. It looked like a rather large store, one that would have almost everything you could think off. She didn't have any reason to object to this. "… Fine," she sighed in defeat once again. The two continued their journey down the road.

Mio rubbed her temples in frustration. Instead of entering a store like she had in mind while viewing the building, they had entered a store that was specialized in anything but normal. It had everything ridiculous beyond imagination, and the bassist wasn't in an all too good mood already.

"Hey, Mio!"

Mio turned around upon hearing her best friend's voice, but met a horrible sight instead. She didn't find Ritsu's amber eyes or trademark grin, but instead looked at greenish face, with fallen eyes and blood covering almost every part. It was obviously a mask, but it took little to make Akiyama Mio cover in fear.

"Kyaaa!"

Said girl had now sunken to the floor and had covered her eyes, all the while chanting the same thing over and over again. "Can't see it, can't hear it."

Ritsu took off her mask and couldn't stop laughing at her best friend's reaction. Mio, upon hearing this, stood up and punched the drummer on the head. "Ritsu, you idiot!" she screamed again, while it was Ritsu's time to sink to the ground and nurse the new lump on her head. "Forget it, I'm leaving!"

Before the brunette could react, Mio had run out of the store and went straight to home. Feeling guilty of her actions, Ritsu threw the mask aside and ran after the girl.

* * *

Soooo, it's kinda short isn't it? Don't worry guys, more to come. And some action. Don't forget the action! Anyway, welcome to my first ever fanfic on . I'm a total noob on this site, so please bear with me, okay? This is also my first ever K-On fic. Well, aside from my short Mitsu drabble on dA, but that isn't even worth placing on this site. I look forward to working on this one, though. I managed to get two reviews already! Thank you very much!

Onwards to the second chapter!


	2. Chapter 2

__Notes: I really appreciate the reviews I got. My apologies for this late entry though...

Musician74: Thank you kindly for the criticism ^^ I must admit that my English is far from perfect, but that's why I'm doing this. Because, hey, I will never learn if I won't try/do something myself, right? As for the Beta part, I have honestly no idea how this works. I stated it before: I'm new to this site and still am a total noob at it. I should dig more into how things work around here, but sadly school takes all my time away. I would also like to state that the first chapter was some sort of intro. I, myself, find it very boring as well, but I've read a lot of books that have a really long intro as well. Fair enough, they explain more, and I should've done the same, but as time goes by, I hope I will grow and will indeed get to the level you're talking about n_n

And now, onwards to the story!

* * *

_No one's afraid of friendship. They're afraid of betrayal._

Mio continued to run down the street as fast as she could, paying little to no attention to her surroundings. This made her unaware of the fact that it was getting rather dark outside, but that was maybe for the better. This also, however, made her unaware of the danger she was about to run into. Literally.

Without a single warning at all, she bumped head on into a stranger. Surprised about the sudden contact, she blinked, and looked up, only to meet the eyes of an unfamiliar person. He smirked at her, but it was a different smirk than she was used to seeing from a certain someone. It was way more devilish than Ritsu ever could pull off.

"So? Not gonna apologize?" he muttered, still smirking. Mio flinched, and froze to her spot when another guy came into her vision, possibly his friend.

"Well, look at that. Isn't she kinda cute?" The second guy stated.

Frightened, Mio turned away, finding the ground suddenly interesting to look at. A blush had spread across her cheeks from the sudden attention she got, wanting nothing else than to disappear right there and then. Why, oh why, had she decided to run for it and not look where she was going? She knew she could find her house blindfolded, there was no use into trying to prove it.

"I think she lost her tongue."

Mio still didn't dare to look up. 'Stupid, stupid Ritsu.' If the drummer hadn't gone and done that, she wouldn't be in this mess right now.

The raven haired girl was awoken from her train of thoughts when a hand was placed on her shoulder. Her grey eyes shifted toward this certain spot, confused as to why it would be there. It soon dawned on her, though.

"Well in that case, we could have a little fun, right?" she heard one of the guys chuckle. Mio's eyes went wide in horror, but found herself unable to move. She was too scared to say or do anything, letting the guys drag her along.

A couple of seconds after her departure, however, she felt another hand tug on hers, making her shift her attention between the two guys and the newcomer. Before she could take a glance on this person though, it sped off from behind her and went up front, placing its hand on the guy's shoulder and spinning him around in one go.

"Hey, let go of the young lady!"

Mio's heart skipped a beat as she heard the person speak, instantly recognizing whose voice it was. Her grey eyes darted between the strangers as well as the newcomer, showing her locks of light brown hair in the process.

'Ritsu…'

"Who the hell are you?"

"Oh, so you're asking my name, but not hers? It's none of your goddamn business anyway!" the drummer exclaimed furiously.

Mio felt herself being released in an instant. For a second, she felt safe again, and sighed in relief. It didn't take long for her to realize Ritsu was the new target of the two pair of hands.

Without a single warning, air was knocked out of the drummer as a fist connected with her belly. She was quickly pushed aside afterwards and the two men instantly dove after Mio again. The bassist could only watch in horror as Ritsu struggled for breath, ignoring the oncoming danger. She opened her mouth to scream at her best friend, but nothing came out as she, too, was struggling to find her breath.

A small yelp escaped her lips as she once again felt hands wrap around her arms. Why couldn't they just leave her alone? Why had they go and hurt Ritsu?

"Didn't I tell you to let her go, dammit?!" Ritsu's fist suddenly connected with the jaw of guy no. 1. This resulted into him letting go of the frightened girl and gripping for the side of his face, whimpering in pain as he did so.

Ritsu didn't stop at this however, as she elbowed him right into the area where his stomach should be, making him feel the same pain as she had just a minute ago. After she pushed the guy aside, he tripped over his own feet and fell backwards onto the cold, hard floor.

His friend rushed towards the brunette, wanting nothing but payback for his dear 'bro' on the ground. He too was down in a second, as she simply stepped aside and stick out her foot.

"Come on Mio!"

Mio suddenly felt a warm hand grabbing her own and was pulled along with the energetic girl. She didn't pull away, nor did she really oblige. Her mind was still trying to process what just happened…

* * *

As both girls stood bend over, right before Ritsu's house, they tried to catch their breath after their race home. The drummer was the first to straight up and look at Mio in full concern.

"Hey, you okay?"

Mio looked up and caught the drummers gaze. She weakly nodded, before recalling what had happened a couple of minutes ago. If Ritsu hadn't been there, she'd probably been taken somewhere and molested or killed or worse.

She fought back a sob after thinking about it and was really grateful her best friend had been there for her.

But then again, this all happened because of the brunette.

Realizing this, Mio clenched her left hand into a fist and swung it wildly towards Ritsu. Her fist quickly made contact with her target, Ritsu's head, and a pained yelp was heard throughout the entire street.

"What the hell, Mio?! What was that for? I saved your ass just now!" the brunette yelled at her.

"Yeah, but who's fault was it that I ran off on my own?!" Mio retorted.

Silence. Then a huff.

"… I'm sorry… For what happened in the store," Ritsu finally muttered. She did not look at Mio though, as she had turned her head away during the so-called apology. The bassist didn't mind this, as she was quite aware of the fact that Ritsu found it very embarrassing to apologize while looking straight in the eye with that person. Not that she usually apologized for her behavior. She only did so with Mio.

Although she had planned more to say to the brunette, Mio accepted the apology and also looked away. "I-It's fine. After all, you did save me…" she managed to say. She noted that Ritsu turned back to her. "Like you always do," she added.

The drummer grinned and swung her arm over Mio's shoulder. "Naww, that's okay. I'm your knight, remember?"

Grey orbs went wide of disbelief at that comment. Of course she remembered, but the fact that the brunette did made it more special. A warm feeling suddenly started in her belly and spread out through her body, as blood ran through her cheeks and her face flushed.

When Ritsu let go of her, Mio casted down her eyes in disappointment.

Wait, was she _disappointed_? Why?

"Want me to walk you home, or do you wanna spend the night?" the drummer asked. Her friend looked back up and nodded after a couple of seconds. Ritsu's eyebrows knitted together and a small smile formed on her lips.

"Well, which one is it?" she laughed.

Mio sighed. "The latter."

* * *

"Damn it, Ritsu! I told you to put the alarm clock on!"

Mio hastily put on her shoes and tried to put on her coat on at the same time as well. She failed miserably, but that didn't keep her from trying. Her grey eyes angrily glanced at her best friend, who gazed back apologetically while she tried to do the same.

"I'm sorry, okay… Besides, who's fault was it anyway that we were up late watching our favorite band play on DVD?!" the brunette retorted.

Her friend rolled her eyes and continued to zip her coat. "Yours!" Mio replied. "And The Who is _your_ favorite band, not mine!"

"Alright, alright! You don't have to scream…" Ritsu walked past the raven haired girl and went to open the door. She let Mio go out first, and then ran out herself, slamming the door shut and locking it.

"But hey, look at the bright side," Ritsu said in between breaths as they ran towards school. The bassist looked at her expectantly. "At least you'll lose some weight this wa- OW!"

* * *

While it would normally take at least 20 minutes to walk their way to school, the two girls had managed to be there in 7. They quickly ran past the gates, and entered the building, not looking anywhere else than upfront when they ran up the stairs. Once they had made it to the third floor, Ritsu stopped dead in her tracks, and held her arms up to stop Mio.

When the other girl stopped, Ritsu brought one of her index fingers up to her lips in order to indicate Mio to be silent. The bassist nodded weakly, and the both of them silently walked towards the door to their classroom.

Before they went any further, the brunette checked if Sawako, their teacher, was paying attention to the class or was faced towards the board. Luck was on their side, because Sawako had her back facing the group of students.

Ritsu slowly opened the door and crouched, signaling Mio to do the same as she continued in her tracks. Soon, both of them were down and in the room, silently making their way to their respective desks. The other students who noticed them remained quiet, knowing better than to sell them out. Especially the smaller one of the two.

A certain other brunette, however, seemed unaware of this 'Sneaking in' part, and opened her mouth, smiling brightly. "Ricchan! Mio-chan! You guys are late," she spoke aloud, alarming their teacher in the process.

Mio knew that trying to hush Yui with signals would be too late already, but did it anyway. Ritsu stood up and clenched her hands into fists. "Dammit Private Hirasawa! This is the second time you do this to me!"

As her Captain tried to make her way to her betraying Private, she got hit by a small, yet very hard object. It landed in front of Mio and halted there, letting at least the bassist know what it was. Chalk. Her grey eyes immediately went to Sawako, who indeed was posing as if she had thrown something.

"Tainaka-san! Take your seat or you will receive punishment! That goes for you too, Akiyama-san," the teacher announced, before turning to the board again, resuming her explanation.

Ritsu grumbled and went to the front, placing her bag on her desk when she reached it. Mio, however, felt a chill go down her spine before standing up as well. She didn't really want to find out what kind of punishment Sawako had in mind for her.

* * *

Azusa silently looked at her senpai, slightly confused as to why they were doing this. Ritsu had one of her arms around Yui's neck, while the other one supported it, as she slightly pulled her arms up, making Yui do the same as well. The poor airhead was now standing on her toes and faking some tears, begging Ritsu to let her go.

"Like hell! Why did you bail me out? _Again_!"

"I'm so sorry Captain! I was just… So happy.. To see- _Can't.. Breathe…_"

The rhythm guitarist felt sympathy brewing up for Yui while she watched their antics. "Err, Ritsu-senpai, I think Yui-senpai really can't breathe," the cat-like girl spoke up.

Ritsu still refused to let go, muttering that "it was her own damn fault if she dies."

"Oh for god's sake, Ritsu. Let her go," Mio said, obviously annoyed. The bassist sipped her tea, and turned her attention to the two brunettes. The drummer glanced at her, as if to say 'are you kidding?', but when amber met grey, she quickly let go of Yui, and went back to her seat.

"Traitor," she muttered.

Yui had fallen to the floor and was trying to catch her breath, but when she heard this particular word being said by her Captain, she immediately jumped up and glanced at the drummer. Sad, chocolate brown eyes looked at the other girl. "No..! I don't wanna be a traitor, Captain!" she yelled in a lost tone.

Ritsu huffed, and didn't even bother to look at the girl when she spoke, placing her elbow on the table and letting her head lean on her opened hand, looking at anything but Yui. "Hmpf, you should've thought of that before acting on impulse."

The three other girls continued to watch the scene with a sweatdrop. Mugi, however, was smiling brightly.

"By the way, Mio-chan," the blonde started, so Mio and Azusa shifted their attention to Mugi. "How come you two were late for class this morning?" she asked, all the while smiling gently to the shy girl.

"That's because we overslept!" Ritsu managed to talk herself in between. Mugi and Azusa looked at the brunette in utter confusion, while Yui was now holding onto Ritsu's leg as if her life depended on it, whining and sobbing in between everything.

"I stayed over at Ritsu's last night," Mio commented calmly, sipping on her cup of tea once more.

"I don't mean to be curious or anything, but senpai, it's in the middle of a school week. Why would you have sleepovers then?" Azusa asked, having grown a vague shade of pink on her cheeks.

"That's because Mio was too scared to walk back ho- GAH!" Ritsu couldn't finish her sentence as she felt something hard hitting her shin. It was probably Mio's left foot. While she tried to grab her leg, she hovered over in pain and managed to hit her head on the table. Several sounds of tea cups hitting the plates underneath them, and those hitting the table they were standing on were heard.

Miraculously, everything remained clean.

Azusa ignored the now two sobbing senpai and turned back to Mio. "Why?" she asked, curiousity creeping over her. The raven haired girl, however, did not want to answer that question truthfully. She cringed immediately and looked for a way out of this. With a swift movement, she placed her tea cup back on the table, stood up, and walked over to her instrument.

"A-Azusa, let's practice now, shall we?" she desperately tried.

Ritsu straightened her back and looked straight towards her best friend. An amused smile formed itself on her face, and she waved her hand in front of her.

"You know that doesn't work when you picked her interest," Ritsu simply stated. Her smile slowly changed into a small grin.

Yui, who expertly had been distracted from her Captain and her previous antics by the great Mugi-sama and her cake, also stared curiously to the bassist.

Mio helplessly stared back, but the drummer didn't come to her rescue this time. In fact, she shouldn't have even thought about receiving help from Ritsu. Not when the girl could brag about her heroic deed the day before.

And so Mio slumped back to her seat, sighed heavily and listened to her friend's version of yesterdays happening.

* * *

AN: I'm much happier about this chapter. I like the outcome of this better, and even though I didn't really have an outlining at all for this, it sorta met my expectations. I decided to do something way different than I usually do: I'll just write a story without planning things ahead. I hope it makes things more interesting for me, because now I can make twists and turns without even having to change things. There's one down side to that, though. It's harder to write, especially when you directly write in English, instead of your native one.

See any typo's, grammar mistakes or something you just don't like? Don't be afraid to let me know! I don't bite, it only helps me to improve :)

So that was chapter two! I hope you enjoyed reading it and that you'll leave a review!


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